


Thinking of you (Not right now, but generally speaking)

by Clownbox (orphan_account)



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Champions (Comics), Ghost Rider (Comics), Marvel (Comics), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: M/M, not really explicit just kinda horny at one point
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-10
Updated: 2019-03-10
Packaged: 2019-11-15 04:07:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18066302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/Clownbox
Summary: Superhero business is grinding Robbie's spirit down to dust, and he's starting to think this job is only for absurd and irrational people. It's not all that bad, though, some of them are just more insistent than others when trying to get his attention.A compilation of slightly-stitched scenes in which Amadeus just crashes through his peace of mind.





	Thinking of you (Not right now, but generally speaking)

**Author's Note:**

> This is probably the largest fic i've written to date, unbeta-ed as most of my shit goes. i considered writting eli's dialogue but decided against it b/c idk what's going on in avengers and eli is a jerk in the sense that he's often confusing to wiggle into narration cohesively, just insert your own mind captions if you feel like that's missing. this spans for about half a year including before and after war of the realms, which you'll see i just sorta wrote about very vaguely and we'll see if it fits in after it comes out. 
> 
> fic is only marked as mature for one scene and amadeus' loudmouth, which will be obvious when it comes on if you'd like to skip it! (title is a toblerone bar caption. sue me)

1.

 

Robbie’s feet weren’t touching the ground but he could feel it was brittle. The charger told him, like a phantom limb, as they rode through what was left of the main street. It was breaking itself apart in chunks, being blown off by hard gushes of wind that caught everything in their wake, causing crashes and scattering debris in the air. The blame was on man named Lucius Garronche, part-time entrepreneur and full-time demonic vessel of chaos magic, who according to the unlimited avengers database, dedicated his life to impersonating the great wizard of Oz and was currently attempting to become the eye of a hurricane right above the governor’s hall.

 

So all in all, it was an usual mid-month wednesday.

 

Unidentified creatures were pouring out of cosmic holes in the fabric of existence, civilians were spiraling away in bunches like dorothy and her house with nothing to hold on to, car alarms composed the entirety of the epic score, and a hot dog cart, without its lid(or owner.) on the way, had reached the heights while leaving an ethereal floating trail of sausages. A loose chunk of asphalt the size of a fully-grown adult was shot spiralling to his direction while he’d been accessing the situation, and just as the car halted in panic to change its tracks, a gigantic hand bearing a shiny golden bracelet batted it away. It zagged erratically on its way down and hit a fire hydrant that exploded in a surge of water.

 

“Watch out for flying bricks!”

 

The ghost rider sneered, fire crackling at the sight of Ms. Marvel’s polished figure giving him a quick nod to continue as she cleared the path. She already had her arms full, having extended and flattened her whole left side to serve as an emergency slide for evacuating executives trapped in the chaos.

 

He accelerated. Through the air, flying purple gorillas on steroids were tackling Iron Man, who tried to counter their massive fists with energy beams.

 

_He accelerated_. To his right, the spider-men- The new one and the old one, had made a catapult with webs and launched Silk into the air like a minutiously engineered projectile, through the barrier of wind and detritus dancing in the sky, where she took hold of flying cars and tried to subdue their attacker with traps. More panicked and confused people were ushered away by Snowguard, who had became some sort of whale with horse legs and a double tail to be able to shield them all.

 

_He accelerated._ He could spot She-Hulk on top of the main building, withstanding the circumstances using her mere weight and inertia, growling as she reached to grasp the magician’s legs and hopefully defeat him by mashing his bones into dental paste.

 

Robbie felt himself smile at the sight, rushing to get close to her with the confidence they’d be able to deliver the final blow together, counting their total number of final combos up to five. Her massive fingers scraped the bottom of Garronche’s polished slacks, almost grabbing, and in that very millisecond, there was a boom.

 

He repelled each and every one of them with a blind explosion, the kind that manipulated the wind and air pressure to send powerful shockwaves wiping the entire area in a two kilometer radius. His own summons were caught in the bargain- a few monkeys met their doom with the fall and multiple crashes. Shadow puppets in the form of fellow witches had been split in multiple parts just by the sheer impact of it. The dodge charger flipped backwards like it was nothing but a hollow toy, and Robbie summoned forth one of his shadow portals to swallow him up and spit him out in the clear.

 

He couldn't predict where he'd end up with it, and _'the clear’_ turned out to be the largely obscured side of a building not facing the sun (and quickly falling at high speeds.) just out of the line of the magician’s sight. Wheels connecting to window structure, the Ghost rider trailed down on the building's surface as the ground below them started to crack and cough up with smoke and ash, red and orange lines bursting through the asphalt in a lavalike manner. The unnecessary was being casted out into the air, helping reshape the ground into a door to an unknown world.

 

Loose chunks of cement and pipe systems were orbiting dangerously close to his ride, but that’s not what hit him, no. It was a big purple and green pair of shoulders that did, hands denting the sides of his car as he gripped desperately, impact causing the hellcharger to crash into the building and ruin one of the offices as its fire spread out and toppled over a dozen different cubicles. There was a singular pause, in which his univinted passenger took a second to breath and corrected his spine, rolling over so his face was pressed to the cracked glass, staring right at the burning embers inside Robbie’s skull.

 

“I, ah. _Miscalculated_  . Sorry.” He attempted to push himself off the front and it nearly gave out with a sad whirring sound. Robbie felt like he weighed as much as an entire rhinoceros. “Tell me i can take a ride inside this time, _please?_ ” Amadeus groaned, but he still had a pleading little smirk in his ridiculously green face.

 

Sigh.

 

The door sprung open, and he didn’t have to be told twice. Hulk couldn’t fit inside Robbie’s car, and the same could be said about Brawn- except he knew how to make himself smaller, scrunching up on himself as if mimicking a ball and gripping the handle to the side of his head.

 

“Now, i really don't mean to tell you how to do your job, but if you _can_ teleport why not _go for it_ right above his head?”

 

He made the full turn with the car to get them back on track.

 

[AIM SUCKS. CANNOT PREDICT WHERE I AM GOING. CANNOT DO IT WHERE THE SUN TOUCHES.]

 

“Right. Right.” Amadeus looked down with a stressed out frown, and wiped his hair back just to fidget with something. Robbie could almost hear the gears ticking together inside his head. “But you can make this thing take a leap so i can dive on him, right?”

 

He accelerated.

 

[YES.]

 

“Now _that's awesome_.” Brawn unlocked his door. His eyes were fixated on the perpetrator of the whole mess, as he was distracted with lecturing the rest of the heroes on their failings. Villainous monologue and whatnot. From the ground, charred hands burning with lava popped up, trying to crawl to the surface on the magician's command, following an otherworldly rhythm. “I'm pummeling him down and you take it from there, work your fire breath. Or the exorcism glare-thingy. wherever that lands on the scale.”

 

Robbie figured it wasn't really the time to tell him the penance stare was out of his reach.

 

There was only a nod, and the charger took the leap. On his way out to the free fall, Brawn had the time to turn back and wink as he fell, yelling a clear _'pleasure making business with you!’_ before he was pushed off by the laws of psychics and god himself.

 

What little is left of the fight after Garronche is taken out by the green bomb is only a flash of brimstone, as a dazed wizard was easier to chain up & demons with their links severed were crushed by the sheer number of the opposition. When the dust finally settled, the avengers were left to deal with accessing the situation to news and police reporters while the champions ushered crowds caught in the crossfire into nearby hospitals. Some were teleported out, some carried by Snowguard's giant bear-eagle form, some rode their mobile base.

 

Robbie peeked out of his rear-view mirror to follow their movements, and swore he didn't care, but he couldn't find Amadeus again.

 

2.

 

Studying the avengers database wasn't fun.

 

Specially when it meant Robbie had to go through dozens of files of boring, battered, and frankly obscure villains. Weren't most of them in jail? Weren't they supposed to? _What_ exactly did the avengers do post-battle, if not making sure they were in jail? What a gigantic waste of time.

 

He sighed, dropping back on his wheeled office chair and letting the impulse take him wherever. (Wherever wasn't far, as he discovered shortly after when his back hit the wall with a muffled _thump._  ) The printed sheets of paper with black and white portraits of supernatural terrorists, outer space threats, and plain ol’ weird people in elaborate costumes were an idea of Carol's to not wear out his eyes, but it wasn't exactly helping either. He just wanted to sleep. Sometimes, working with the avengers _just sucked._

 

He played with the stack of paper on his hands, shuffling through the sheets and scanning the same text he had looked at for over two hours to no avail, until he reaches the screen. Of course the team hadn't left him only with selected stacks of paper- the Avengers database was vast, expansive, and they figured printing all of it would be an act of ecoterrorism. So he had this little special ipad, with all sorts of dumb and over-the-top security protocols that forced him to press his digitals and scan his eyes everytime he tried to use it. But when it did open- and oh boy, did it take it's sweet time just booting up- it gave him access to the entirety of the confidential archives.

 

Okay, maybe not all of them. It was enough to have a rough idea, though.

 

He guessed it was fair protocol and all, like parental controls. He couldn't access the extended profiles on his own teammates, just power basics, and news-approved public info. He couldn't access weaponry plans, or building plans, or plans  _plans_ for that matter. The only thing he was allowed to access were the A to Z threat database, and a raggedy old internet explorer. And he could use it to open pornhub, which sort of defeated the whole parental control allegory. They didn't care about that bit, just that he didn't snoop around more than he should.

 

Robbie stared at the screen and his matte'd up reflection stared back. God, were his eyebags always this big? Did he get more gray hairs? He felt like he was a few seconds and some terrigen mist away from cocooning up and mutating into an old man at the ripe age of nineteen. A wave of pure dread washed over him, and he couldn't help but poke at his face, horrified. He'd been spending too much time with old people. This was his curse.

 

He scrambled to sit up and fix his hair, adjusting the collar of his shirt and dragging the chair back to the table. He had to do something. Get out for a bit. He did sit-ups. Looked at his phone and realized he had at best 3 potential contacts and they were all school-related. Maybe he was panicking a little bit. His eyes dropped to the tablet and a little light went off above his head as he came to a triumphant realization: he _could_ use the hero forums!

 

Except he still didn't knew anybody in these. But whatever. The celestial was empty, cold and _dark_ and he'd rather not turn into a musty vampire anytime soon.

 

He remembered the address from a team debriefing, and frantically typed it in. As the browser took an absurd time to load up, he thought about the announcement the Champions were using it as means of communication, and a way to recruit potential allies depending on location. Tony had been mildly impressed, T'challa had scoffed as he explained how it was too open, too much on broad daylight, too accessible for anyone to use it, which was sort of the point, but meant their enemies could easily keep track of the information. It meant _they_ could also use it to keep track of information, or even try to boost up the team reputation with the youth by signing in a few times and answering a few questions.

 

Hercules had an account, that damn well meant they were welcome to do some.

 

That had been just his way of announcing he had prepped easy login accounts for everybody on the team. Robbie hadn't thought he'd use it as long as he was alive, but there he sat, typing in HotWheels467 as an username and struggling to remember the password order. The forum seemed… large. But not large and empty like the threat archives, large like a little counter on the bottom right corner showing _304 users online_ at that very second and _20968 visits on the past week._

 

It was overwhelming, if anything. How is anybody supposed to work with that?

 

The web browser took another full minute to load his log-in, which he spent reading the open thread list, and definitely not obsessing about the banner cutting through the entire top of the page, spelling in big and bold red letters: “ **DO **YOU** WANT TO JOIN THE CHAMPIONS? 24 HOUR REGISTRATION SUPPORT. CHAT WITH US!** _*parent permission not necessary, but encouraged.”_ Which had a small picture of the team attached, with majority of them making goofy faces while pointing at Viv, the resident pink android, as she stood in the center of the frame with a tentative smile and her arm raised in greeting. They came out as happy, a warm group of friends instead of the uncomfortable work dynamics the Avengers currently had. Amadeus was obscured in the back of the picture, all blurry green lines, but he was blowing Viv a kiss. He was significantly taller than everybody else, so his body was cut in a weird way where you could only assume he was bowing down to fit in, and not a floating torso. As Robbie smiled to himself, the page refreshed automatically, blanking the photo away.

 

The next thirty or so minutes were spent browsing around, through game threads to ones for help with newly manifested powers. There wasn't a way to be sure how many of these kids were actually telling the truth and how many were roleplaying as a superpowered character, but it didn't matter. He could notice they were having fun, and most of the time that seemed like the point of it. It was weird. Well, not weird 'bad', just new. It was different and good, maybe. Joining something for fun and for the adrenaline of it. Racing because he felt like it, not because he needed to get that month's share of cash. Maybe getting into somebody's pants.

 

The last thought uppercut him so suddenly he had to tab out and look around, checking to see if anybody else was in the room. Broo must have been busy somewhere, so it was just him and the controls. And the screen. And this overflowing sense that he was losing his mind.

 

Cool cool cool.

 

Maybe his hormones were acting up.

 

Definitely that.

 

He pinched the bridge of his nose and counted to ten, opening the threat database again. Maybe if he focused on studying instead of daydreaming about a day off, he wouldn't feel like he was going into heat. Instead of choosing a letter, he went through it in order and opened the 'A’ folder.

 

_Abadon. Aberdeen Angus. Abomination. Aireo. Ajax. Alchemoid. Altar man. Alter Ego. Amadeus Cho._

 

_Amadeus Cho._

 

His finger stuttered as it was skipping away file names and he swapped back, pausing over it. Why was _Amadeus_ on the _vicious and wanted_ list? He couldn't be that bad. Stupid and reckless and prone to walking right in front of his car, but not dangerous. He wouldn't hurt a fly. Unless he happened to accidentally sit on them, or fall on them, or all sorts of smothered-through-meat treatment.

 

On second thought, that didn't sound right. He just had problems addressing the dangerous side of monster muscles. Even more so if said monster muscles had been winking and nudging at him for months.

 

But he was tagged as a level 9 threat. So against better judgment, Robbie opened it. A report copied directly from the terminated SHIELD database dating 4 years back and edited since covered the screen, as well as a single picture, where scruffy-haired, bloody and battered eighteen-year-old Amadeus smiled to the camera with the arrogance of a small child. He had bandages all over his face, a split eyebrow and a black eye to match with it- and might've been missing a tooth. The subtitle only stated: “ _Subject at time of capture, identified illuminati. CODE:SCTWRSII._ ”

 

The only constructive thought Robbie's brain supplied was _‘He's too small_ . _’_

 

They had other pictures- older, and certainly with lesser quality than that big one, where he was even younger and covered in dirt, running around with a pup riding low on his jacket. And he was driving a _Vespa_ , of all darned things.

 

He took quick glance at the infraction list, which started with _obstruction of justice_ and ended with an ominous _'threatening severe physical harm and attempted murder to officers of the law.’_ , sweating cold. He knows this is biased, blown out of proportion. And he felt like a creep, getting information out of third-party shady government organizations. He couldn't read on. He could just ask. Not to Carol or Steve or Tony, though. Direct from the source.

 

But how was that going to work? Would he just walk up and say “ _hey, why would try to do carol's head in?_ ”. It sounded disastrous. That wasn't just a conversation topic you could drop in the middle of a sentence. He mumbled it over and over, then spun on his chair, and finally opened the forums back again. They could give him a number. This time going straight to the recruitment AD and clicking through, he watched a formulary and a chatbox pop-up on the screen.

 

_“Hi! Due to technical issues, our support team is not available for service at the moment. Viv may be experiencing internal or external damage. Please try again at a later time. Estimated repair period: 27:00:09 Hours.”_

 

He read it over thrice. And it wasn't until the end that he realized he had been just looking for an excuse to strike up conversation again.

 

3.

 

At the very top of the celestial mountain there was a set of circular windows. They weren't always windows by design, but became rather decent ones after the thorough renovation work done to make the place hospitable once the Avengers moved in. The ghost rider sat outside of one of those, legs dangling out dangerously in the snowy wind. Their house of operations was a cosmic dead body, _how fitting_. He didn't feel cold, wrapped in the wonders of a skinless body always on fire, but he just didn't feel right either.

 

Inside, from the utmost floor to the lowest one of all, the Avengers, Cousins-to-Avengers, European Avengers, Happy Meal avengers, a few lost X-Men, forgotten 80's teams, and even some who _weren't with any of the above_ , partied their win against the hordes of Malekith. Even if they escaped by the skin of their neck.

 

But outside, if he squinted, he could still see the bodies. A plethora of frost giant corpses still laid around, with weapons stuck to their limbs and slashed body parts. They weren't human, he knew, with blue skin and deep tattoos and fangs that could pierce through his skull like it was nothing but paper. But it was still unnerving. Their remains disintegrated slowly, a few snow specks at a time, and with every blow of wind a little more disappeared like they hadn't ever been there.

 

He thought it suspicious. Robbie watched over the process just in case, dwelling in the possibility they could be pilling up to form something worse. His hands were still stiff and alert from chain whipping for what felt like a lifetime, and so was his brain. He hadn't turned back ever since he transformed on the previous day, and at this point it was affecting his point of view, filled with static. To his right, there was a brief little _creak_ noise, followed by a voice coming from inside.

 

“Got any brooding company?”

 

The telltale green head popped out, carrying a small smile and something else that was still too far in the dark for Robbie to make out what.

 

[JUST ME. I DON'T MIND IF YOU DON'T FREEZE.]

 

The thing about feeding amadeus’ attention was; he got worked up for almost anything all. Right then, just giving him permission to climb out of the building and join in watching over the wasteland made his smile a little larger, his eyes a little shinier, his posture a little more theatrical, confident. He shrunk into himself in equal measures when he was dismissed.

 

He had noticed.

 

“I wouldn't worry about that, haven't you heard by now? Hulk is the _warmest_ there is.”

 

[THAT MUST BE A NEW ONE.]

 

“I'm working on the branding.” he winked, again. “Want some grub?”

 

In his hands, he carried a little tray with stolen canapes and cocktail glasses, some filled with candy and others with drink. “- it's just cola in these, i don't do alcohol.”

 

Robbie accepts one of the gummy filled glasses, amused by their mere nature. _That's a good pick_ , amadeus had murmured back.

 

“So...”

 

_So_. The wind blew a little louder. Was he supposed to talk?

 

[I WAS WATCHING OVER THE FROST GIANTS. THEIR BODIES ARE DISAPPEARING.]

 

Terrible.

 

“ _Ah_  .” He saw amadeus leaning over and squinting at the mess down below to the best of his ability. “They just kinda do that, i think. I try not to get too caught up on logic when it comes to god stuff.” he says it like he's got used to it. Just _god stuff. You know, it's that simple._

 

[YOU SOUND LIKE YOU HAVE SEEN A LOT OF IT.]

 

“Once upon a time, yeah.” A shrug. “most of the story sounds like a fever dream.”

 

The rider's hands tighten on the chains, fidgeting with their position and the way they laid on his thighs.

 

[WHY DO YOU DO IT?]

 

“Sorry?”

 

[WHY THIS JOB. THIS LIFE. THIS IS A MESS.] he tried to not sound exasperated, but that was far too outside of his control. [LAST WEEK WE STOPPED A VAMPIRE WAR. AND I AM NOT REALLY SURE IF IT WAS ALL OF IT. IN THE OTHER ONE I GOT BEAT UP BY _OLD_ WOLVERINE WHILE WE LOOKED FOR THE _NEW_ ONE. WE HAVE THREE WOLVERINES. NOW THE WORLD ALMOST ENDED. WE'VE BEEN FIGHTING FOR TWO DAYS. AND THEY ARE THROWING A PARTY?] he gesticulated and spit out burts of fire, unable to keep down. [A PARTY!]

 

Amadeus considered giving him the encouragement speech, about the inner calling and duty to the world. Something pretty and inspiring and made-up. He didn't. The ghost rider was staring at him wide-eyed and he had the sneaking suspicion that if he lied, he would be immediately found out.

 

“I can't give you the answer you want to hear.”

 

The rider let out a long, frustrated sigh, pushing out dark smoke from the holes on his mandible. It's a distressing sight, moreso because of how it felt so oddly out of place. This guy was supposed to be scary, untouchable, _unstoppable-_ imposing  _._ But _this guy_ was just Robbie. Robbie, from the auto-shop, who refused to enter Amadeus’ meatwagon van because it was too ridiculous. Who avoided super-hero teams to keep his daily life untouched. Who _somehow_ got dragged into the Avengers, probably because they paid him well enough. It was Robbie having a nervous crisis.

 

That kills the man.

 

“I've seen the world nearly end five times.” He rubbed his thumbs together, and scooted a little closer, taking in a long breath. “I’ve _seen_ it end two times. Maybe almost three, with this one, and one of them was my fault.” Amadeus looked at the frozen cola on the abandoned glasses between them, and tried his best to sound in control. Sure. Like he had the hang of it. “There was a prophecy, around the time everyone was freaking out about the skrulls. Athena…” he knocked his knuckles against the ledge of the floor, pensive, face scrunched up a little. Too convoluted. Complicated.

 

“When i was sixteen my house was bombed. We lost everything. Me and my sister escaped the fire, but we were separated for long enough that i thought she was dead. I met the Hulk, by chance, and i got- _obsessed_. Was spiralling a little at the time. I was fixated on him. Lived on the streets for a few months doing scams, stole a bike, blew up a few SHIELD carriers to cover up Hulk's tracks” at which point he laughed a little. “That's about when i met Herc.”

 

There was a sound of metal scrapping as Robbie turned to look at him.

 

[HERC?]

 

“ _uh_  , _Hercules_. There was this entire… insane prophecy involving one of us stopping the all-consuming chaos king, and it was all written beforehand, you know? It's why my house had blown up. It's why i had to scamper around and meet herc. Why my entire course was taking me where i had to go. The whole thing had to happen and i couldn't run from it because when i did, it got worse. And it got way worse before it got better. We saw the whole world go dark.” he munched on a jelly shark, overtly aware of the morbid shift the conversation had taken. “It wasn't the same after that. You can't switch the button off and run around like nothing happened- well, i couldn't. So maybe i'll just have the time of my life, you know?”

 

_I know._ He did feel like replying. _I read your files._

 

“The jerks down there?” he pointed at the red window behind them, where the closing notes of a 2010’s black eyed peas song and the sound of claps were going off. “They're used to it by now. Helps with the brain. Don't know how else they keep their sanity.”

 

[AH.]  Robbie added, rather unhelpfully, looking down again. At some point, he had sent his chains off and his hands sat empty on his thighs, less erratic than they were a couple moments ago. [YEAH. I GUESS SO.]

 

Amadeus only hummed as he unloaded an entire glass’ worth on his mouth and munched. The silence was bothering him again.

 

“Where's your brother right now, egghead?”

 

He tapped the empty glass against his lips. Robbie still hadn't tried to eat any of his.

 

[SPECIAL SCHOOL PROTOCOL. T'CHALLA SAID HE WAS SAFE IN A WAKANDAN EMERGENCY HIDEOUT WITH THE OTHER KIDS.]

 

“Are you worried?”

 

[I CALLED. HE’S BEEN THERE FOR A DAY AND A HALF.]

 

“ _And_?”

 

[HE WAS HAPPY. THEY'RE HAVING A SLEEPOVER PARTY. THE TEACHERS ARE TAKING CARE OF THEIR ROUTINE. FOR ALL HE KNOWS HE'S ON A LITTLE SCHOOL TRIP I AUTHORIZED.]

 

“So you  _are_  worried.”

 

The rider turned to look at him, stiff, almost accusatory. Then he huffed out gray smoke, hands gripping his knees. His light was flickering, dimming out.

 

[YES. WE DON'T. HE DOESN'T. UH. GO OUT BY HIMSELF A LOT. NOT FOR ENTIRE NIGHTS. NOT… WITH A LOT OF FRIENDS I HAVEN’T EVER SEEN. IT FEELS _STrange.”_ he breathed out the last word as the ambers left him, and was left in the cold in his civilian clothes, puffing out white air. It was like having caffeine purged from his system, his energy depleted. He nearly fell back, eyesight blinking into black until it stabilised.

 

“He'll be alright. Panther's got a tight grip on surveillance.” Amadeus leaned in closer, patting his shoulder in what he assumed was a heartwarming friendly way. (It was hard to tell, he had to hold back on force a lot.) “And hey, you're back.”

 

“I'm back.” he parroted, quieter. Robbie looked at the hand paused on his shoulder, knees pulled to his chest as he shook slightly in the breeze. It really was warm. “Thank you.”

 

Amadeus smiled bright and wide with his lips pressed shut, like he didn't want to give out as much as he had done, but was far too deep in to care.

 

“Ya know, i usually save my depressing backstory for around the fifth date. I've cut a special deal for you, though.” he hooked his arm around Robbie's shoulders with nervous energy buzzing through his spine, as the man slowly blinked, looking like he'd been pulled from a dream but wasn't ready to leave the bed just yet.

 

“ _-Seventh-uhm, teen_.” he interjected.

 

“What?”

 

Sluggish, Robbie pressed a kiss onto his left cheek. Exhaustion caught up to his weakened form as he shielded himself with Cho's arm and wrapped it around his torso, head resting against his side, yawning.

 

“You've done this about seventeen times, now. We're way past five.”

 

“You were keeping count?”

 

“Somebody had to. In case i had to sue you for spontaneously throwing yourself against my car.”

 

His eyes fell closed, and he cozied up to admittedly the warmest body he’s ever been around. And while it happened, Amadeus blushed heavily, hoping to god the weather would just freeze the embarrassed smile off his face soon.

 

“- Does that mean i get to kiss you?”

 

There was no response, just light snoring on Robbie's part. Amadeus carried him inside, and he slept through the loud noise and the following day.

 

4.

 

For a young guy, it was hard to say Robbie had problems putting down his phone. He was one for the quick solutions, one to four word replies. He used punctuation. He didn't have notifications on and didn't seem to chat with more than four different people at the same time in months. His battery lasted entire days and some more, which was a wonder to all.

 

He was a perfectly balanced little guy as far as the eye could see.

 

That period of peace ended as soon as Amadeus registered in his number. 'Registered in’ as in he didn't hand it out, it simply popped up on his contacts after Robbie awakened from a long, _long_ nap. Amadeus swore he _had his means,_ whatever that meant, and that he _hadn't done anything else invasive to the system, though he did purge malware from it_. And while it was highly contradictory, Robbie figured he didn't have much to lose either way.

 

_/U were asleep so it aint like i could ask :p/_ He had unapologetically explained through text, immediately trailing down about how this was just a little bit of harmless data exchange. _/Thought abt staying in ur room but felt creepy. Idk. Its pretty massive in there anyways./_

 

_/You carried me here?/_

 

_/Yeah like a baby it was suuuuuuuper cute. Even got asked for pics/_

 

_/No./_

 

_/Ok im jk i didnt i just dropped you in and left/_

 

_/No funny business?/_

 

_/Lil gnite kiss?/_

 

_/Hm./_

 

_/Aw come on :((( you kissed me back there we have a thing going on rn/_

 

He didn't answer immediately, crawling out of bed for a run to the bathroom that evolved into a stop at the kitchen for breakfast and tracking down Broo to ask if Gabe's ‘special weekend sleepover’ had run its course without too much trouble. He wanted to see him as quickly as possible, count every hair on his head to assure it was still all on place, even if just to have the certainty he didn't experience any of the disaster. When he finally made his way back upstairs, half empty coffee mug in hand and humming out to the latest earworm, his phone had ten different / _hey?/_ notifications.

 

_/hey/_

 

_/hey/_

 

_/hey/_

 

_/hey/_

 

_/hey?/_

 

_/We have a thing right? I'm not reading this wrong./_

 

The question puzzled him, mostly because he liked to think of himself as being pretty straightforward and easily understandable. He had made his intentions clear. Or he thought he did.

 

Amadeus, in the other hand, thought that he typed like an old man.

 

_/We do./_

 

_/C:/_

 

Robbie locked his phone to search for his bag and drive down the sea to pick up his brother, but as soon as he moved an inch the screen lit up again.

 

_/Wanna go out sometime this week?/_

 

Just in case, he decided to go back down and ask if he could take a few days off due to post-Armageddon stress.(And that was only partly a lie.)

 

5.

 

They sat in the car with the windows down, trying to get comfortable in the middle of a kilometers-long traffic jam. It was their second- _well, maybe still the first if you got too technical on it and counted all the days, as Amadeus did-_ week attempting to go on dates. ‘Real’ ones, although the concept was tricky. It had been twenty minutes of wait (so far!) with only the musings on the radio to fill the silence, because Robbie was never sure when he'd get a break and his weekends were always jeopardized by a threat or ten, not that Amadeus’ schedule was any better.

 

Point being, it was a _Thursday_. And apparently everybody else and their mom also felt like going out, rendering the traffic to swimming through molasses.

 

Robbie wished he was swimming. Maybe they _should_ have gone to the pool instead. It would certainly be more peaceful than listening to a thousand horns on repeat for ten minutes. His head was nearly killing him. It's on the brief break he takes to groan loudly and massage the bridge of his nose that Amadeus acts up from the passenger seat.

 

“Have you _ever_ given yourself a celebratory orgasm?”

 

He looked up like Amadeus had just asked if he liked to eat bees for breakfast.

 

“A- _what_.”

 

Worse, like he had just pulled photo evidence of him stuffing his mouth with them.

 

“I can't believe you have to ask.”

 

“ _-you_ are the one spouting off nonsense right now, not me!”

 

“ _You_ don't even remember _when_ was the last time you masturbated, don't you.” Amadeus seemed absolutely crushed, which considering the situation was the funniest thing. Robbie didn't respond. “God, _you don't_. They're killing you. They're going to suck your soul straight out of your body and you'll let it happen!”

 

Robbie continued to be quiet as he mulled it over, because for all thoughts and purposes he did watch porn- when he was bored, and under the covers, and the clock hit two in the morning as he couldn't sleep- but he'd been so tired as of late that he had no will to act on it. He'd just put it on play and let it run like it was another regular movie on netflix until he'd fall asleep.

 

“I'm too busy to spend time thinking about _that_  .” he defended in a knee jerk reaction, blood rushing up to his head. This was bad. He was never good at hiding his embarrassment, it'd be written all over his face. “It's just not. Not… _relevant_.”

 

“You're a seventy year old man trapped in the body of a perfectly underused twink.” he mouthed, crestfallen.

 

“It's not that bad, okay!” he risked a glance from the steering wheel, growing shifty.

 

“You tell me you have headaches nearly every day and it's because you spend your entire damned week sitting down or driving around for the avengers and -not once- beating off in the car so you can have a smidge of oxytocin running to rejuvenate your poor, _poor_ cells. Saddest thing I've ever heard.” The dramatics were _astounding_. Robbie felt his face burning either way, just from how loudly and openly he spoke.

 

“You're making that up to make me feel guilty.”

 

“Oh, you want to make it a bet now? So i can unload a whole truck of evidence on your sorry, blue-balled ass?” he taunted, confidence rising off the charts.

 

“You sure have a big mouth for somebody who's done nothing to fix it.”

 

That shut him up.  

 

For about a total of excruciating 45 seconds, in which Robbie could only squeeze his hands around the wheel as he felt clear smoke build up on his lungs and try to seep out of his mouth out of pure mortification.

 

“Park the car and i will.”

 

Amadeus had leant forward, arm weighing in on the top of Robbie's seat. There was no way he still had his seatbelt on at that point, but he usually only wore it to be a good example when Gabe was present. They were alone, dangerously close and with just enough time left to still be able to pick him up at five. It was tempting, he had to admit.

 

“We're locked in the middle of the highway, i don't think i can park anywhere.” That was the logical part of his brain remembering it existed.

 

“I don't know, i thought i was going out with the _ghost rider._  Did i just pick the one with no drive for anarchy?”

 

“But the avengers security protocol…” Robbie started, but Amadeus had his lips ghosting his ear, which made thinking a few levels harder than usual. “It said in public- they said i shouldn't…” he stopped, biting down on his bottom lip. Since when did he care? _Why_ should he? He wasn't a boring lonely old fed. Was he now?

 

He was definitely acting like a boring, lonely old fed.

 

The change must've been apparent, because Ammy rolled his eyes and Robbie could feel the soft vibrations of his delighted chuckle immediately after.

 

“To hell with the fucking avengers, Robbie.”

 

The car lines all around them were trying to move ahead, and impatient drivers were hurling curses and pressing their horns with the rage of a thousand bulls, but Robbie was deliberate in taking his time with a kiss, warm and basking in newfound courage. The sky was painted a mix of pink, purple and slow-coming blue, so it wasn't like he couldn't make a jump. Plenty of growing shadows around them, he only had to keep moving.  

 

He kicked the engine and breathed life into the charger with fire, leaving a burning trail behind them as they took a portal away onto the nearest abandoned parking lot. Robbie still missed a few spots when moving with portals and they ended up exiting too high in the air, falling with a loud ‘ _CLUNK_ ’ that inevitably made Amadeus knock his head against the hard ceiling.

 

Robbie argued it was his fault for not wearing the seatbelt as he should, and Amadeus whined loudly and tearfully about how much his head hurt until his boyfriend was forced to take a look at it himself. But on the moment it was held down for inspection, he pulled the fly on Robbie's pants down and attacked his underbelly with a friendly bite, leaving him yelping and mad for having fallen for a cheap (and frankly obvious,) trick.

 

He resentfully laid his seat down when asked to, pouting for the dramatic effect of it. But he still watched closely how Amadeus roamed on skin with his lips, breath impossibly hot when he wanted it to be. Being toyed with through his briefs until they were wet and practically translucent, and coaxed into growing in the warmth of his mouth. He _still_ grabbed Ammy's hair by the bunches, first too frantically and hard, then apologetically when he managed to hit his head on the steering wheel, working messily in cramped space.

 

_“Ow! fuck, again?”_

 

Amadeus swore he was “ _okay_  ,” and that “  _my skin is too thick to damage easily anyways!”_ but he laid unrealistically flushed for a guy whose face was _green_. He avoided eye contact, holding back a nervous laugh. “This was supposed to be hot.”

 

Here's the thing about why porn usually put him to sleep: it was far too fabricated. The dream was nice, yes, fantasies were pleasing, _yes,_ but he could never get past the acting, the exaggerated moans, the easily spotted discomfort. He had made a guilty habit out of searching for amateur cams, shaky close-ups, and carefully set-up rooms for adventurous honeymooners. He liked the affection, the joy, the hopelessly neediness you only had when you were in love, or afraid you were. So needless to say, this _was_ his definition of hot. And stupid. sometimes that was enough.

 

Steaming in the literal sense, with light particles escaping out of his lungs, Robbie cupped his face and rubbed in the shape of his cheek, easing Ammy into at least looking at him.

 

“We're fine. You're fine. Just go slower.”

 

“Yeah? well, _whatever you say, Romeo.”_ Amadeus chuckled, eyes flickering away quickly to give himself some breathing room. The illusion of of his embarrassment was easily broken by how his hand didn’t stop stroking for a second, lips quirking up as they brushed sensitive skin. “-so long you keep doing that. Makes me feel like a pretty princess.”

 

“Deal.” Robbie didn’t have to think too hard about that one.

 

He sat hunched as Amadeus tentatively regained his confidence, bit by bit, and came still petting his cheek, moaning on a low note as Amadeus swallowed around him. (He still swears the whole intellectual argument about celebratory orgasms is bullshit, out of nothing but stubbornness. To which Ammy responds in equal measures with an _‘I love you, but i’m still right and you’re wrong.’_ )

 

6.

 

“Now, you gotta promise me this is just between the two of us.”  Amadeus asked, wary.

 

“Promise! I'm not telling _anybody_  .” Gabe answered in a squeaky voice, suddenly lowering it when Amadeus reminded him of the seriousness of their sigile with a gentle hush. “  _Not even ninja wolf,”_

 

A _crush_ and _crackle_ followed their conversation in the dark, and then the light switch was turned on.

 

Robbie glared at what was _clearly_  a couple of criminals he had been accepting into his own home, huddled into a corner of the kitchen. They were caught red-handed, sharing the forbidden bounty between them, eyes upset at the sudden bright flash of light and completely frozen in place.

 

“I can explain,” Amadeus managed to say through a completely full mouth, his cheeks comically round like a squirrel's.

 

Gabe nodded frantically, and pointed at him, trying to excuse himself by driving his chair away while poorly hiding something on his back.

 

“You, stop. _You_ , open your mouth.”

 

_“Gross, no!” A_  madeus whimpered, covering it with one hand as he munched loudly. He was still in uniform, and had just sneaked his way in trying to go unnoticed. “  _Lishen, we hawd a deal_.”

 

“We did?”

 

_“Noooo- not yough- uh,”_ he gulped, then got up on his feet still slurring slightly. “Gabe here lets me in when i forget the keys, sooo… i pay him with treats. I'm teaching him the value of exploitation, he's getting real good at it.”

 

He shot Robbie an attempt at a dashing smile, and Gabe grinned nervously, eyebrows creasing at the middle of his forehead. He wasn't supposed to say any of that, was he?

 

“Are you trying to tell me you _lost_ your keys and bribed my little- i can't have this conversation right now. Its four in the morning. You know it's four in the morning.”  Amadeus winced at his words. Then nodded in agreement.

 

“-i'm sleepy.”

 

“He's _dumb-dumb_ ,” Gabe added in a whisper, covering half of his mouth on the assumption Ammy would be offended at the thought.

 

“I can see that, and i'm really disappointed in the two of you.” Robbie crossed his arms for emphasis, and their shoulders immediately dropped in unison. “Really, i thought at this point you'd know better.” Gabe was giving him the puppy pout. Amadeus was rubbing his nose and exclusively looking down at his dirty boots. “Where's _my_ piece of whatever you're contrabanding?”

 

It took them both a full minute to realise he wasn't all mad at all and lighten up like christmas lights, pulling a half-eaten brick of toblerone out of the back of Gabe's shirt.

 

“It was off at the gas store, two for twenty!” Ammy beamed as Robbie broke off his share.

 

He didn't have the heart to tell him that was the regular price, and that the clerk at the 7-Eleven had conned him because he sounded drunk, so he just ushered both of them to bed instead.

 

_“And next time- be quieter!”_

 

Robbie couldn’t say he really minded the noise, though.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Amadeus' hyperintelligence goes away when he uses his brain too much until he replenishes it with sugar and thats a real underused trope i gotta tell ya


End file.
